We have a clear engagement model for the scope of collaboration and participation

Transcription

1 EC 1 Chapter 5 Summary We have a clear goal to co-imagine and co-create the future with our customers. We will do this by continuing to build on our solid foundations of engagement to date, involving even more customers and implementing innovative new ways to increase active customer participation. The Executive Leadership Team, Board and CCG are committed to putting customers at the heart of our decision making as a key strategy for achieving our vision of a resilient water future for the South East. Chapter headlines at a glance We are already engaging customers as active participants We are already collaborating widely with customers. We are working with developers at Ebbsfleet Garden City and Fawley Waterside to help them create more water efficient homes. We are working with Brighton ChaMP (Chalk Management Partnership) to protect and improve the quality of groundwater. Local communities have been engaged in bathing water steering groups to help preserve beaches for residents. Learn to Swim has achieved a landmark of 750,000 children over the last 25 years. Target 100 will engage customers in behaviour change at scale. Catchment First will engage stakeholder groups in catchment management. Resource Hubs will open up wastewater treatment works as community resources. Our approach is embedded in our business. We continue to personalise participation We re using more personalised methods, implementing interesting and engaging techniques, further segmenting our customers, and working across local and regional communities. We have a clear engagement model for the scope of collaboration and participation Our model defines the scope of our current and future engagement, providing clarity on what our vision of success looks like. We have 12 principles to provide both clarity and flexibility for our participation strategy Our principles-based strategy means we are able to ensure engagement programmes deliver against good practice. Customers are at the heart of our decision making Delivery of our customer engagement and participation strategy will be governed at Board and executive level within Southern Water and through our Customer Challenge Group (CCG) or Customer Advisory Panel (CAP) outside of price reviews. 66

2 5.1 Our approach: we have developed a new customer participation strategy and engaged the CCG in it s development We have solid foundations of engagement and are already participating with customers across areas of delivery, providing community ownership and control. Examples include: Target 100: Our new Target 100 transformational programme will use behavioural science and behaviour change techniques including incentivisation to reduce water consumption. It will explore water labelling on water-using products, upgrading smart meters to give customers access to realtime information and using data to give customers personalised water efficiency information, support and control over their water use. Value of Water programme : We are creating a programme to engage customers on the value of water. It will include raising awareness of the people in the region of the potential future risks of too little or too much water, agreeing a shared view of the kind of future we want and giving people the opportunity to tell their stories about the value of water in their lives. Figure 1: Our approach to customer participation Resource Hubs : Our Resource Hubs programme will transform larger treatment works into a resource for local people so that we can all value our water. Wastewater treatment sites are seen as off limits, unpleasant and unwelcoming places. Over time, we will bring many of them closer to the heart of communities. We ll transform them into Resource Hubs for recycling water, generating renewable energy, supporting community amenities and providing spaces for training. We aim to significantly increase customer participation to build a resilient water future for the South East. There are four elements to our engagement and participation strategy, each of which are explained further below: 1. Our model scopes engagement and participation Our approach starts with the customer, looking at all the different ways we engage, bringing teams together and defining our preferred future. Our model is described below: Figure 2: Engagement and participation model 67

3 2. Our principles provide quality standards to guide operational practice Our engagement and participation strategy provides a principles-based way of working that is flexible but consistent across our model, providing principles that tackle the key drivers to enable success. Our 12 strategy principles are set out below: (A more detailed explanation of these strategy principles is set out in TA 5.1.) Table 1: Our 12 strategy principles Our 12 principles of engagement 1. Integration 5. Collaboration 9. Partnering 2. Shared planning 6. Segmentation evolution 10. Iteration by design 3. Innovate in our approaches 7. One voice 11. Open to challenge 4. Participation first 8. Two-way dialogue 12. Comparative learning Our strategy was presented and approved by our CCG in June Our framework improves how we frame opportunities to participate Our engagement and participation framework uses customer needs as a way to guide how we engage with customers, making our customer insight relevant, accessible, easy to understand and actionable throughout Southern Water. The framework is summarised below: Figure 3: Engagement and participation framework 4. Our governance provides a framework for ownership, progress and challenge Supporting our model, strategy and framework is a series of governance activities to support our customer-driven culture, which includes the Board, Executive Leadership Team (ELT),and continuation of the CCG (though our Customer Advisory Panel). The forums engaged in these governance activities are set out below: Table 2: Engagement and participation governance Forum / personnel 1. The Customer Strategy Group (CSG) 2. Board Subcommittee for Insight and Engagement Purpose This group (led by the Chief Customer Officer) will continue to assess progress based on our principles (monitored by the ongoing CCG), and use our shared engagement plan as a primary ongoing agenda item. This will help ensure our customer engagement is focusing on areas that have the greatest potential impact on customers. This group will continue to meet beyond PR19 and track a similar flow to the CSG but will also review outputs and challenges from the CCG. Chaired by the Chief Customer Office and led by two Independent Non-Executive Directors (INEDs). 3. CCG (CAP) Through continued engagement with the CCG (CAP outside of price review) we will provide the 12 principles as a framework for review. Each session will have an agenda item to assess progress and look forward to the up and coming plan. The CCG will then help prioritise improvements to our engagement strategy, by having sight of internal resource and customer impact Engagement leads Leads within Southern Water who represent the pillars from our Engagement and Participation Model and draw the relevant teams into our customer participation approach. 68

4 5.2 We already actively engage customers on each objective in our model Customer participation reaches across all our activity as part of business as usual. Below are some examples of our activity to help illustrate how our plans for future engagement work across the various elements of the model: Table 3: Customer Experience Rant & Rave Keep in touch notifications Access to usage data Captures customer feedback in the moment at point of interaction providing high volumes of real-time customer data on different transactions. Table 4: Listening and Acting Business plan engagement Over 60 formal reports and summaries, more than 42,000 direct interviews providing robust and comprehensive insight. Table 5: Community Customer choice A new programme to enable communities to bid for funding linked to capital schemes and operational sites in their neighbourhoods helping bring local people, businesses and groups together to start up new local networks or enhance existing ones. Table 6: Behaviour change To understand customers ideal timing and frequency of contact and a universal tailored bill communication to cater for different customer requirements. Customer trust tracking In addition to our customer satisfaction tracking, and following our deep dive research on trust, we are building a model to continuously track impacts of events and identify priorities to improve trust. Reach & Support Partnering with vulnerable organisations and other businesses to provide support by sharing data, best practice and referrals. Using specialist advisors trained to understand the customer and range of support. Better visibility and monitoring of consumption data (i.e. through smart metering). CMeX / DMeX shadow surveys We conduct our own tracking to provide regular and more granular insight to better understand changes in performance and the impact of improvements and events. Customer Action Group Recruiting panels of customers who participate in the design of solutions. The panel reconvenes with new members when solutions move to delivery, with the Group actively participating in language, tone and messaging. Retailers and developers Shared ownership through closer relationships. E.g. Collaborating with developers at two critical sites in our region - Ebbsfleet Garden City, Kent and Fawley Waterside, Hampshire to help them create more water efficient homes. DataWell Southern Water initiated a collaborative programme with regulators, universities, technology and other water companies to develop an open-data platform for storage and analytics for promoting insights to a wider set of participants. Community Ownership (e.g. bathing waters) Pilot bathing water steering groups from the Isle of Wight to the Isle of Sheppey, led by customers, are not only helping preserve the beaches for the residents of the region to enjoy but also putting plans in place to attract money into the region from tourists. Water efficiency Segmentation Behavioural science Data and analytics Our Target 100 initiative is supported by a comprehensive programme to support customers including home and school visits, campaigns and incentives using behaviour change principles and practice. A key principle of our future strategy is to continue evolving our customer definition. The objective of segmentation evolution will achieve a better understanding of customer segments in order to influence engagement levels. Building on trials from AMP6 on digitalisation and debt management, we ll continue to use behavioural economic principles on a further range, including FOG (fats, oil and grease), unflushables and water efficiency. Integration of our insight sources is bringing together our data and research teams to provide a better view of impacts on customer behaviour and key drivers. 69

5 Table 7: Communications Stakeholder engagement Campaigns Incident engagement Community outreach Continued engagement through our regional stakeholder teams, and regional, strategic, environmental and vulnerability panels. Table 8: Customer-driven culture Bespoke customer service teams Tailored teams able to provide specialist support across key customer journeys which includes vulnerability, affordability, complaints and home move. A wide range of campaigns including Refill, promoting tap water over bottled and partnering with retail outlets, and Beauty of the Beach, run in partnership with the Environment Agency. Greater focus on proactive communicating around incidents and improvements through the use of social, web and direct channels. A continued programme reaching out to our local communities which includes roadshows, our Learn to Swim programme, employee volunteer days, sewer tours and our partnership with Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. bluewave Brand narrative Engagement governance (Board / ELT / CCG) Our innovation programme which includes a dedicated Innovation Lab and methodology to fuel business innovation, contemporary digital technologies and forwardlooking collaboration practices such as open innovation and partnership. A new narrative for employees to help provide a consistent view of Southern Water, supported by a customer voice programme to bring customer understanding, priorities and stories to life across the business. A number of sub-groups, leads and teams collaborating together to bring a consistent view of the customer across all layers of the business, with particular focus on positioning the customer at the heart of our decision making. 5.3 Our strategy presents a step-change in customer participation and is essential to achieving a resilient water future Our future participation strategy uses a model, principles, framework and governance to provide a clear vision for how we engage and increase active customer participation. We are committed to continue with regular programmes of insight and engagement to put the customer at the centre of our decision making. Our strategy will apply across all our relevant activity in TA 5.2 we focus on four examples to help provide a range of schemes with an early view of an engagement plan. This will be reviewed and updated closer to the time but helps demonstrate how our strategy will be brought to life. (See TA 5.2.) Technical Annexes: TA 5.1 Engagement & Participation Principles Detailed summary to explain our principles TA 5.2 Future Engagement & Participation Examples Provides four examples of how our engagement plans could take shape in delivering our plan 70